In response to a report published this week about the emerging cyberthreat posed by Chinese hackers, the White House has unveiled a new policy that will impose fines and other punishments on foreign nations engaged in cybercrime.

According to a detailed threat analysis published this week by Northern Virginia’s Mandiant, hackers employed by the Chinese government have waged a sophisticated cyberwar against entities in the United States and elsewhere, compromising over 100 computer networks over a few short years and attacking networks belonging to the public and private sector alike. Now only days after that report was released, US President Barack Obama has signed off on plans that will implement harsh penalties on nation-states caught pilfering American computer systems for trade secrets and other intelligence.

During the State of the Union address earlier this month, Pres. Obama weighed in briefly on “the rapidly growing threat from cyber-attacks,” claiming “foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets” and that America’s “enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions our air traffic control system.” Only hours before his address, Pres. Obama signed an executive order designed to create a cyber-infrastructure that will better manage future attacks against the US, and the next day two members of Congress reintroduced a bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, which will thrive to correct security concerns that the executive order cannot.

In the wake of the new report, however, the White House may be accelerating their cybersecurity policies beyond what once expected only days earlier. On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that the White House is developing “more aggressive responses” to these attacks, confirmed later in the day.